Red Handed by JLM Morton

Red Handed [Broken Sleep Books, 2024]

This first collection of poems from JLM Morton touches on a variety of subjects. These include chemical themes around the chemical dying of cloth, the natural environment, and personal stories. There is a distinctive voice here despite the presence of influences like Pascale Petit.

The middle of the book features a sequence called Sentient with beguiling usage of language, for example ‘past the rough/ medicine of borage,’ and ‘how catkins talk/ in/ trembling/ ochre/ tongues.’

The poems inform the reader about the ‘lifecycle of the cochineal beetle’ and several ‘field notes’ contain arresting descriptions and senses of place. Morton uses an array of forms and images and there is a feeling that she is searching for something. One stanza sizzles ‘a women in a place/like home  wades in a river/the riverbed gently knuckles her feet/she doesn’t know she’s looking/

for the splash of an offering.’

More of the same please..

Stephen Paul Wren